INTRODUCTION

The mung bean (Vigna radiata) or also known as the moong bean and green gram, is a
plant belonging to the legume family. Besides providing protein in the diet, mungbean has the
remarkable quality of helping the symbiotic root rhizobia to fix atmospheric nitrogen and hence
to enrich soil fertility (Anjum et al, 2006). Mung bean plants are cultivated mainly in the
southeast Asia, being tropical or sub-tropical crops. The seeds are often used in showing and
studying seed germination due to the sufficient rate at which they germinate. This is because
they need nutrient elements in relatively very small quantities for adequate plant growth and
production, even though extreme deficiency may cause great disturbance in the physiological
and metabolic processes involved in the plant (Babaeian et al., 2011). Because of calcareous
nature of the soils, high pH, low organic matter, continuous drought, high bicarbonates in the
irrigation water and an imbalanced application of fertilizers, mung bean growth is mostly
affected by poor management and soil fertility in the Asian regions. (Bradl, 2004)
Germination is one of the most important stages in the life cycle of plants that determine
the efficient use of the nutrients and water resources available to them (Gan et al., 1996).
Environmental factors such as temperature, light, pH, and soil moisture are known to affect
seed germination (Martins et al., 2000; Canossa et al., 2008; Ikeda et al., 2008; Rizzardi et al.,
2009). Temperature plays a major role in determining the distribution of species and the
periodicity of seed germination (Guan et al., 2009). Germination rate typically increases linearly
with temperature, at least within a well-defined range, and declines sharply at higher
temperatures (Alvarado & Bradford, 2002). Other major factors that affect seed germination are
water potential and salinity since osmotic and salt stress can delay, reduce or prevent
germination (Zhou et al., 2005). According to Lu et al. and Norsworthy & Oliveira in 2006,
Additional factors affecting germination include pH, presence of growth hormones, nutrient
absorption capacity, and planting depth. (Ghaderi et al, 2010)
This experiment sought to illustrate and explain the different environmental factors and
their corresponding effects to seed germination.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Temperature
Temperature, along with relative moisture of the seed can affect the percentage and rate
of germination with the ranges depending on the plant species. Seeds, unless germinated, tend
to deteriorate continuously, and ultimately die. This rate of deterioration is dependent on the
moisture content and temperature. Another effect of temperature is the loss of the seeds initial
dormancy. For hydrated seeds, high temperatures generally reinforce or induce dormancy. Low
temperatures may also induce dormancy, but in many species are stimulatory, especially within
the range of -1 to 15 . In short, dry seeds are more likely to germinate and wet seeds are
less likely to germinate at higher temperatures. Germination is also stimulated in small,
dormant, hydrated seeds by varying or alternating temperatures which is typically related to
light. Once seeds lose their dormancy, the rate of germination can be observed to change in a
pattern at the base, optimum, and ceiling temperatures. At the optimum temperature, the rate is
maximal, while at and beyond the base and ceiling temperatures, the rate becomes zero.The
optimum temperature for germination rate is typically higher than that required to achieve

maximum percentage germination in partially dormant or partially deteriorated seed populations.

(Roberts, 1988)
In the case of this experiment, mung beans were allowed to germinate in three different
setups, varying only the temperature. One petri plate containing the seeds on wet cotton was
placed in the classroom having a temperature of 21, another was placed in the refrigerator at
11 and the third one was placed in an incubator at 37 for four days. After incubation, the
length of the hypocotyl-root axes of each of the ten seeds on each plate were measured and the
number of germinated seeds were counted per plate, the data expressed in mm and percent
germination, respectively (Table____). Based on the gathered data, it was found that all seeds
in all three plates germinated. However, the mean length of the hypocotyl-root axes for each
plate indicate that there was better growth in the incubator, followed by those at room
temperature, and the lowest growth was observed in the setup placed in the refrigerator. This
means that the optimum temperature for mung bean germination would be around 37.

% germination

Length of hypocotyl-root
axis (mm)

H2O at room temp

100%

29.8

H2O at ref

100%

4.2

H2O at incubator

100%

79.6

Effect of Temperature

Table_______.
To find out for sure if the differences between the three groups of data were statistically
significant and to determine the relative statistical differences of pairwise comparisons among
the groups, a one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) and a post-hoc t-test were performed.
Based on the former, the P value was found to be 5.08 x1012, which is less than 0.05
significance level, indicating that there is indeed a significant difference among the groups of
data. Pairwise comparisons had P values of 0.0000071 between the incubator and room temperature
setups, 0.0000008 between the incubator and refrigerator setups, and finally 0.00011 between the room
temperature and refrigerator setups. The post-hoc analysis shows that there is a greatest statistical

difference between the highest and lowest temperatures and that temperature really does affect
the growth and germination of seeds.
REFERENCES
Alvarado, V.; BRADFORD, K. J. (2002) A hydrothermal time model explains the cardinal
temperatures for seed germination. Plant Cell. Environ., v. 25, n. 8, p. 1061-1069.

Anjum, M. S.; Z. I. Ahmed and C. A. Rauf. (2006) Effect of Rhizobium inoculation and nitrogen
fertilizer on yield and yield components of mungbean, International Journal of
Agriculture and Biology, vol. 8, no. 2, pp. 238240
Babaeian M, Piri I, Tavassoli A, Esmaeilian Y, Gholami H. (2011) Effect of water stress and
micronutrients (Fe, Zn and Mn) on chlorophyll fluorescence, leaf chlorophyll content and
sunflower nutrient uptake in Sistan region. Afr J Agric Res 6(15):3526-3531
Bradl, HB (2004) Adsorption of heavy metal Probability level ions on soils and soils constituents.
J Colloid Interface Sci 277:1-18
Canossa, R. S. (2008)Effect of temperature and light on joyweed (Alternanthera tenella) seed
germination. Planta Daninha, v. 26, n. 4, p. 745-750.
Gan, Y. et al. (1996) Evaluation of select nonlinear regression models in quantifying seedling
emergence rate of spring wheat. Crop Sci., v. 36, n. 1, p. 165-168.
Ghaderi-Far, F., Gherekhloo, J., & Alimagham, M.. (2010). Influence of environmental factors on
seed germination and seedling emergence of yellow sweet clover (Melilotus officinalis).
Planta Daninha, 28(3), 463-469. https://dx.doi.org/10.1590/S0100-83582010000300002
Guan, B. et al. (2009) Germination responses of Medicago ruthenica seeds to salinity, alkalinity,
and temperature. J. Arid Environ., v. 73, n. 1, p. 135-138.
Ikeda, F. S. et al. (2008)Light and KNO3 on Tridax procumbens seed germination at constant
and alternating temperatures. Planta Daninha, v. 26, n. 4, p. 751-756.
Lu, P. et al. (2006) Effects of environmental factors on germination and emergence of crofton
weed (Eupatorium adenophorum). Weed Sci., v. 54, n. 3, p. 452-457.
Martins, C. C. et al. (2000) Seed germination of Peschiera fuchsiaefolia: effects of temperature
and light.Planta Daninha, v. 18, n. 1, p. 85-91.
Norsworthy, J. K.; OLIVERIA, M. J. (2006) Sicklepod (Senna obtusifolia) germination and
emergence as affected by environmental factors and seeding depth. Weed Sci., v. 54, n.
5, p. 903-909.
Rizzardo, M. A. et al. (2009) Effect of cardinal temperature and water potential on morning glory
(Ipomoea triloba) seed germination. Planta Daninha, v. 27, n. 1, p. 13-21.
Roberts EH. (1988) Temperature and seed germination. Symp Soc Exp Biol.
1988;42:109-32. Review. PubMed PMID: 3077854.
Zhou, J. et al. (2005) Factors affecting germination of hairy nightshade (Solanum sarrachoides)
seeds. Weed Sci., v. 53, n. 1, p. 41-45.